How I'm Learning Japanese

     I've been teaching myself Japanese since January 2014; safe to say, with having two children, its taking me a while. Today I'm going to show you guys how I've been doing it, and where you can start to learn right now. Remember this isn't a definitive list, there will be plenty more places you can learn Japanese, and they may even be easier for you to learn from than my way. Its up to you to take this advice or not.

     First thing's first - I've been watching anime for years now. Like, 13 years, and most of it in Japanese with English subtitles so from a young age, I've known what the language sounds like when natively spoken etc. Pronunciation is often the hardest thing for you to learn, and you're never going to be perfect, but I think the best way to get the pronunciation as accurate as possible (unless you have a friend or teacher who speaks Japanese natively) is to watch anything, or listen to anything in Japanese. YouTube is also a good place to do this, especially channels like Rachel&Jun, Sharla In Japan and Texan In Tokyo - people who either are Japanese, or speak Japanese day to day, who speak in both English and Japanese in their videos.

     To start learning the actual language, I began watching the JapanesePod101 videos on YouTube. In these videos, you get to learn key words and phrases: things you'll actually use regularly when you speak Japanese. Chika from the YouTube channel Japanagos is actually one source I found invaluable for vocabulary! She taught me loads of greetings that aren't in books - ones that you'll actually end up using more often than not!

     For book learning, I went for YesJapan.com's Japanese From Zero series. The information is layed out simply, its broken down into chunks so you're not cramming huge paragraphs of words into your brain that are likely to not make sense afterwards. Its also interactive: they encourage you to write in the book and make notes everywhere to help with your learning. The books introduce the writing system slowly and effectively, so you don't get too overwhelmed. You can also use the website as your learning tool instead of the books (I use both), and the whole first course is free if you have a members account - which is free too. I supplement my JFZ learning with studying the Kanji grade by grade, because even though some people find it easier to learn everything else first and then dive into the Kanji, I like to learn them alongside.

      I've started to compile a list of all my favourite resources on the main bar so you can get to it easier!

     I'm sure this will change, the further I get through my studying, but just for starting out, I completely recommend these sources. Are you learning Japanese? Let me know how you study!